THE OXFORD CIRCLE...60's fantastic raw garage psych
Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 7:07 pm
We haven't talked about the great Oxford Circle of the 60's....in a long while!
THE OXFORD CIRCLE...remember these guys were playing brilliant, really raw garage psych in 1966!!
Mystic Eyes..this'll knock your socks off!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6egvm0CV ... re=related
To the uninitiated, the name Oxford Circle may only be recognizable from a faded Fillmore or Avalon poster, where they once shared the bill with the Dead, Quicksilver or Big Brother. Amongst the cognoscenti, however, their name is mentioned in the hushed, awed tones reserved for only the truly great.
Amazing to think that such immense repute stems from the outfit's sole recorded legacy, the $500-rated single Foolish Woman / Mind Destruction. But all it takes is one listen to this masterpiece of throbbing punk hysteria, and its demented, off-the wall flipside, to vindicate the legend of the Circle.
Contrary to public opinion, the Circle were not in fact a San Francisco band. Rather, they hailed from the university town of Davis, just outside state capital Sacramento. Gary Lee Yoder, Dehner Patten, Jim Keylor and Paul Whaley had been kingpins in the over-populated northern California teen scene ever since they got together in late 1964 as the Hide-Aways.
One year later they had become the Oxford Circle, in deference to their trademarked interpretation of the blueswailing English punk sound. Patten tore off spiky, spindly leads with dexterity; bassist Keylor and drummer Whaley constituted one hell of a powerhouse rhythm section; and the Circle were fronted by the soulful, full-blooded warbling of Yoder, who was also not averse to writhing around the stage floor or coaxing ear-splitting electronic noises from his Gibson.
Sensing the constrictive nature of their immediate environs, the Circle frequently journeyed south to San Francisco. There, their tight and dynamic stage show quickly got them booked at the ballrooms, and the combo would regularly blow their more illustrious contemporaries off the boards. No further evidence is needed than LIVE AT THE AVALON 1966, where Family Dog honcho Bob Cohen's dynamic recordings capture the Circle at the peak of their powers. From the nine-minute improvised feedback assault of Mystic Eyes that opens the disc, via ripping takes on punk staples such as You're A Better Man Than I, Baby Please Don't Go and I'm A Man, through to Yoder's tuff originals like Soul On Fire and Since You've Been Away, LIVE AT THE AVALON firmly establishes the Circle as the pre-eminent psychedelic garage band, bar none. And it crystallises that brief but magic moment when punk fury took on an experimental zeal and mutated into something quite breathtaking indeed.
Oxford Circle morphed into KAK (a personal fave, Blue Cheer
Foolish Woman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d7A1x0cj_U
You're a Better man than I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPawLnX3 ... re=related
The Raven
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZFfQmq- ... ure=relmfu
Soul On Fire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6rw6Qg- ... re=related
THE OXFORD CIRCLE...remember these guys were playing brilliant, really raw garage psych in 1966!!
Mystic Eyes..this'll knock your socks off!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6egvm0CV ... re=related
To the uninitiated, the name Oxford Circle may only be recognizable from a faded Fillmore or Avalon poster, where they once shared the bill with the Dead, Quicksilver or Big Brother. Amongst the cognoscenti, however, their name is mentioned in the hushed, awed tones reserved for only the truly great.
Amazing to think that such immense repute stems from the outfit's sole recorded legacy, the $500-rated single Foolish Woman / Mind Destruction. But all it takes is one listen to this masterpiece of throbbing punk hysteria, and its demented, off-the wall flipside, to vindicate the legend of the Circle.
Contrary to public opinion, the Circle were not in fact a San Francisco band. Rather, they hailed from the university town of Davis, just outside state capital Sacramento. Gary Lee Yoder, Dehner Patten, Jim Keylor and Paul Whaley had been kingpins in the over-populated northern California teen scene ever since they got together in late 1964 as the Hide-Aways.
One year later they had become the Oxford Circle, in deference to their trademarked interpretation of the blueswailing English punk sound. Patten tore off spiky, spindly leads with dexterity; bassist Keylor and drummer Whaley constituted one hell of a powerhouse rhythm section; and the Circle were fronted by the soulful, full-blooded warbling of Yoder, who was also not averse to writhing around the stage floor or coaxing ear-splitting electronic noises from his Gibson.
Sensing the constrictive nature of their immediate environs, the Circle frequently journeyed south to San Francisco. There, their tight and dynamic stage show quickly got them booked at the ballrooms, and the combo would regularly blow their more illustrious contemporaries off the boards. No further evidence is needed than LIVE AT THE AVALON 1966, where Family Dog honcho Bob Cohen's dynamic recordings capture the Circle at the peak of their powers. From the nine-minute improvised feedback assault of Mystic Eyes that opens the disc, via ripping takes on punk staples such as You're A Better Man Than I, Baby Please Don't Go and I'm A Man, through to Yoder's tuff originals like Soul On Fire and Since You've Been Away, LIVE AT THE AVALON firmly establishes the Circle as the pre-eminent psychedelic garage band, bar none. And it crystallises that brief but magic moment when punk fury took on an experimental zeal and mutated into something quite breathtaking indeed.
Oxford Circle morphed into KAK (a personal fave, Blue Cheer
Foolish Woman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d7A1x0cj_U
You're a Better man than I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPawLnX3 ... re=related
The Raven
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZFfQmq- ... ure=relmfu
Soul On Fire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6rw6Qg- ... re=related